Frugal January, everyone welcome.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Useful links.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1628874-Gas-Elec-Bills-monthly-and-SKY-so-angry

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2209167-Slow-Cookers-are-shit

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2224969-saving-money

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps?

orchard.tesco.com/ Sign up to this.

www.topcashback.co.uk/home And this.

www.quidco.com/home/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub ditto.

www.checkoutsmart.com/ Plus this.

www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/new?page=3 Check this daily.

Happy New Year Everyone!

We compost, I think we just got the bin from a garden centre. It has 3 sections: One to add stuff, one to rot and one to use. It is like 3 huge bags on a frame. Sits in a corner of the garden so it's quite small.
We use the compost on our veg patch although the arrival of DD last spring means it really needs some sorting this year!

Not NSDs over the weekend, but not too spendy.

Hoping for NSDs today and tomorrow apart from direct debits to cleaner and Alex technique teacher.

We are doing really well on food, no big shop in nearly two weeks now. Have a veg box arriving today which will be used to pad out more frozen stuff this week.

Today: lunch - squash soup and HM sourdough. Dinner - last of the turkey curry, rice

Tomorrow: lunch at work. Dinner - roasted squash and hazelnut salad

I'll meal plan beyond that once I get the veg box and know exactly what fresh stuff we will have.

sporting Check your local councils website. Ours was on the waste collection section. Lots of councils are encouraging recycling and waste management. Ours provided a link to a company that it works in partnership with to provide reduced price compost bins and the like. All sizes.

LSD - need to get coffee from Aldi and some baking ingredients, but that's it.

Also going to try the red dragon pie today or tomorrow (depends on time, DD has parents evening tonight) that laska posted last week.

Sorry to hear that collie

Oh no Collie

for all those having a difficult start to the new year.

I am off work ill today, had a rubbish night so hoping a day in bed will be enough to help me feel better!! At least it will be a NSD.

Oh no collie :( sorry about that. Go easy on yourself won't you

Hope you feel better soon girlie! Rest up

Oh no Collie

Been gym while I am a lady of leisure....paid up front £220 a year back in Dec so I can get my money's worth! Can't walk now lol

Got osteopath today - £40 (every 3 months), and just need a courgette, mushrooms and milk in tescos for dinner.

I had a compost bin last year. My phobia is mice/rats.....and one day, I trotted outside, lifted up the lid, and was faced with about 6 mice scurrying on top of the food . Needless to say....I screamed, had nightmares, and the compost bin went straight on freecycle!!!

Off to ebay more stuff. Want to get 20 bits on this month - I think that's how many I can list for free??

made £30 yesterday in the end selling on ebay.

i'm off to the charity shop today to drop a few things off and to hunt about for suitable frames for some posters we bought while on holiday, apart front hat though today will mostly be spent mooching about the house, de cluttering, cleaning, (mn-ing) and maybe baking some biscuits using the nz themed cutters i bought while on holiday.

may also make more soup as am running out.

dinner tonight will be a quick cheap one - pasta, pesto and veggies (maybe with a smudge of cream cheese).

Wire mesh on the bottom of the compost bins stops small critters taking root

collie - . You are having a torrid time. Look after yourself.

Bloody hell, just checked internet banking and annual subscription to Xbox live has come out, which must be something that DH set up for DS, but I didn't know about, so that's £40 extra spent today.

NSD today.

I love the control of an NSD and a LSD. It means that if we have a bit of a spendy day like we did on Saturday we can haul it back in again.

I will be quitting the workforce on 30th Jan to be a full time carer to dd18 who had SN and we will need to have these controls in place.

Dh, who is inclined to be a bit loose with the cards is very concerned I will turn him into Bob Crachett. I am very concerned he will go in the opposite direction and be on a continual mission to spend.

Does anyone have a spendy OH? I don't want this to be an issue between us and would love to hear how others handle this source of conflict.

I'm by no means tight with money and am very open to spontaneous outbursts of spending, but those episodes seem to trigger wild abandon in dh's spending. His mindset seems to be "Whoo hoo, we're spending, lets really go for it!"

I have no desire to monitor his finances, so if he could just realise the right thing to do all by himself that would be great

LSD today £2.21 on chocolate for the kids and me but I promised DS as he was so good at the doctors this morning walking there and back in the wind.
£200 to my mam for our share of the holiday at Easter but that was budgeted for. Will wait until sat for dance fees as that's my 14 day limit.
No more spends today. Housework and oven cleaning, although the oven is horrific and can only face the little one that we use least at the moment. The big one will be at the weekend as I will have to leave the cleaning stuff overnight. It's the lakeland one so no hasty smells.

Encyclo - my dh would spend if I'd let him. He's last out the taxi and first to the bar sort of guy.
He has no idea of what's in the bank etc or when things need paying.
When we go out I give him cash and if we pay by card I tell him bank or credit card.
He wanted to have a meal out last night I told him we've beers etc in and if he wants Indian it'd have to be takeout. Saving £50
The joke is in our house is he's the boss but I'm in charge.

Bloody sainsburys £18.

Yep, very generous DH who has no grasp of money or long term goals, if it were up to him we'd spend everything we have, never buy a house, prob always be in debt. He just doesn't care about money!

Another one with a spendy DH.

Encylco - I know you might not want to have this level of control, but I am 100% in control of all our finances. DH gets pocket money and will use his credit card if needed (usually for expenses) but that's it. We are a team, so we figured right at the start of our relationship, nearly 20 years ago, this is an area I am good at, so I do the finance. He's good at other stuff, so he does other stuff.

I need to get dd the next size seat. She's not outgrown her old one yet but it's four years old and the straps are getting really stiff. Hoping dh will go halves. Off to look for cheapest way of getting it...

Thank you Needs, Peonies and annie That is really good to know. I think you're right needs I will have to take control. He equally has no clue what's in the bank, what needs paying or how much we can spend at any given time.

I think 100% control of finances will have to be the way for me.

Have had a very unproductive day feeling sorry for myself picked dd up from school so saved £5.50 on the after school club and otherwise NSD.

encyclo We have a similar system to need. All our money goes into the joint account then some goes into dh's pocket money account and some goes into mine. I then manage the joint account. It stops arguing as we both have some money to spend on what we consider important and we used to find that when we both used the account we'd see the balance was say £600 but not know the other person had bought £70 clothes, £50 shopping, £30 present, £20 round of drinks etc so actually there was much less available and we'd go overdrawn. Too many cooks as they say. Now one person is in charge we don't have an overdraft and never pay interest on the credit card.

£2 on playgroup. £1.69 on sweetcorn and coriander.

Money in purse: £5.55 (was £7.00)
Money in bank: £82.05 (was £176.93) – Quidco paid in today.
Money in coin jar: £23.60 (was £25.05)
Available money decreased by: £97.78 + £29.88 credited
Total remaining: £111.20
Days to payday: 2

Spends since yesterday:
Car insurance deposit: £43.59
Petrol for neighbour's car: £25 (which she is kindly letting us have use of)
Tesco online shop £51.17
My daily bus ticket: £4
Kids bus fare: £2.20
DH owes me £1.50

Yesterday I did a 6 week meal plan (only a couple of meals duplicated but I am very proud of it). I have ordered my online shop from Morrisons to be delivered on Friday and it only came to £51+ (there are a couple of things including a joint of meat that I will have to go and get myself) and my weekly budget is £75, so I have a bit to carry forward to next week.

Feeling a bit fed up today. The garage where I am buying my new car from phoned today and I thought he was telling me it was ready to collect. They were putting 2 problems right for me, the handbrake and the electric windows however he phoned to say he'd discovered each window that didn't work (3) needed a new motor in it but he'd been told by the auto electrician it was £100 per motor and if he repaired it he would be out of pocket for the car. I then said that £1000 was my top budget and I couldn't afford to pay an extra £300 on top. He then said “do you really need windows?” and I was like “Errrrrr yeah...” so he asked if I would meet him half way. I said no, I am not spending a penny over £1000 on it, and offered him the chance to give me a refund. He then said he'd ring me back and then rang back to say that his mechanic reckoned he could do it cheaper but it would be tomorrow before I got it. He tried to use the fact that he'd had the car up for £1195 but had reduced it to £1000, so I said that wasn't the point, as it was a £1000 car on autotrader I had come to see, and I wouldn't have looked at it if it was over £1000. Neither DH or I know about cars at all,so I just hope I am not buying a duffer.

Thirdly, we have a leaky roof so I need to get that fixed. I hope it's going to be a small job but as it is me it won't. I bet it costs hundreds :-(

Why is all of this happening to me now that I am trying to get a grip on my finances?

Can I join in? Dh and I are aiming to pay off debts this year so we have more spare money for fun :)
This weekend was quite a thrift one: £65 Tesco delivery on Sat-including cleaning products, toiletries and meat to last 2 weeks (we are a family if 4 btw)
Sun was a NSD :). Cooked a large roast chicken and I've perfected using every bit of the chicken. So we had a good meal yesterday and then all leftover meat went into fridge whilst I boiled the carcass for stock. Today I made 2 soups (enough to feed the 4 of us for 2 meals), a chicken casserole which we had tonight and then froze the half left for a quick meal night, and also prepped the filling for a chicken and leek pie tomorrow.. So that's 6 meals out of my chicken!
Today dh took me to the farm deli shop for lunch £21.20 ( including fresh veg for meals)
£4 in b&q on bulbs for our cooker hood.
Also been penny sweeping our accounts and put £2.56 in total into savings.
Feeling happy with a good start.
Tomorrow should be a NSD.

Can I ask - after bills, food, petrol, bus fares and any activities the DC's do - how much money do you have left per week or per month for "frittering" or anything that comes up?